CAPITOL CHRISTMAS TREE STARTS TREK TO WASHINGTON, D. C. Family seeks answers about man’s death.

A Colorado Christmas tree that will grace the nation’s Capitol this holiday season has been cut and readied to visit several communities before its journey to Washington, D. C.

The 55- foot- tall and 25- foot- wide Engelman Spruce, from the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, was cut down on Thursday and loaded onto a semitrailer, according to U. S. Forest Service officials.

Each year a new tree is selected from among the country’s 155 National Forest to be displayed on the West Lawn of the U. S. Capitol building for the holiday season. The 2019 tree was from the Carson National Forest in neighboring northern New Mexico.

Stops in Colorado start Tuesday in Norwood and Montrose, with a stop in Denver on Saturday, Nov. 14. A stop in Asheville, N. C., is scheduled on Nov. 17. For a complete list see the U. S. Capitol Christmas Tree page on Facebook.

A week after Glendale police shot dead a man in a pickup truck scant information has been released about the shooting and an attorney representing the dead man’s family is seeking disclosure and transparency.

“We are simply asking for investigators to give us transparency in this case,” said Matthew A. Haltzman, a Fort Collins attorney. “We want to know what the facts are.”

The Denver Police Department, Denver District Attorney’s Office, and Aurora and Glendale police are investigating the death of 36- year- old John Pacheaco Jr., who was shot multiple times on Oct. 31 when officers, with weapons drawn, approached his truck, which was stopped in traffic on Colorado Boulevard.

Just after the shooting, police did not say whether Pacheaco was armed and there was no explanation about why officers opened fire with heavy nearby traffic on the boulevard. Climber dies in fall. A 43- year- old Front Range man died Friday afternoon after falling more than 500 feet from the traverse between Maroon and North Maroon peaks, according to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office.

The man fell into a narrow gully to the southeast of the summit of North Maroon, according to a news release Friday night, and “based on the injuries the climber had sustained, the fall was not survivable.” It is estimated he fell between 500 and 1,000 feet.

The man, who was from Niwot, which is near Boulder, was by himself, Pitkin County Sgt. Dustin Gray said Friday evening. The man’s name has not been released.